Kuznetsov Bureau (OKB-276). When Valentin Glushko canceled the Soviet Lunar Program in 1974, he ordered all NK-33s destroyed. Engineers in Samara instead preserved hundreds of them (at least 450) in a hangar with the words “Caution – Radiation!” and a skull… The engines were rediscovered by chance in the 1990s by a group of visiting American engineers, who couldn’t believe their eyes. Dozens were purchased by Aerojet and shipped to Sacramento, California. There were many doubts about such old mechanisms, but the initial tests went very well. In the end, the RD-180 still won out to power the Atlas, but the NK-33 continued to resurface in proposals for new Russian and American rockets.
